President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has appointed Mr. Richard Byarugaba, former managing director of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and Mr. Moses Sabiti, former Country Director for Trademark Africa for Uganda and South Sudan, to the exports and industry advisory secretariat as Senior Presidential Advisors.
They will be working, according to the appointment instructions, as key advisors on exports funding, infrastructure, data and product aggregation to improve work on exports.
PACEID, the President’s advisory team on exports and industrial development was commissioned in March 2022 to deal with poor market access, standards and compliance issues, the cost of logistics and financing of exports. The team has surpassed its targets of USD6bn set four years ago and now aims at expanding its reach to raise 1000 new export entities in the agricultural and industrial sectors with a fresh target of USD100bn in exports by 2045.
“I thank the President for responding to our call to get professional and experienced people to support our new approach to growing exports for Uganda” said Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo, chairperson of PACEID.
“What we have done in the last four years is PACEID1.0; focusing on opening new markets, removing trade barriers, supporting export firms in key sectors and driving better compliance standards along with cultivating a good image of our country as a sourcing centre for products.”
He added that they are now embarking on PACEID2.0 which focuses on data for better planning, product aggregation centers to meet rising demand and limited supplies and to raise funding for investment in value addition in these centers.
Mr. Byarugaba led Nile Bank until it was bought by Barclays bank before moving to NSSF where he transformed the institution from an underperforming entity and left it highly capitalized with assets growing to over UGX17 trillion.
Mr. Sabiti worked with Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) as a senior manager for 17 years and went on to lead Trademark Africa where he helped raise funding for construction of border trade and immigration centres in Kasese, Elegu and Malaba.
